Why MYSTERIES? Because that is the genre I read. Why PARADISE? Because that is where I live.
Among other things, this blog, the result of a 2008 New Year's resolution, will act as a record of books that I've read, and random thoughts.

30 April 2009

Forgotten Book: THE WATCHER IN THE SHADOWS, Geoffrey Household

I found a reference to this book in my records from 1977, and it took some research to track down information about it.

It was the 10th book published by Geoffrey Household (1900-1988), who worked all over the world, including Eastern Europe, the US, the Middle East and South America, as, among other things, a banker, a salesman and an encyclopedia writer. He served in British intelligence in World War 2.

WATCHER IN THE SHADOWS(1960) was filmed for TV as Deadly Harvest (1972).

Various Amazon reviews give the book 5 stars:This is an amazing work of fiction that is impossible to put down before it is finished. If you have ever visited England in the summer you will appreciate Household's love of the countryside and the intense beauty of it. Household weaves together a story about a man who is forced to confront his past by an unknown stalker, and a beautiful woman who is struggling to find what she wants out of life. Nature, human and otherwise, figure strongly in this amazing story that defies categorization.

Last year The Rap Sheet identified it as a book "you have to read."So, tension, suspense, thrills, humor, sympathetic characters, and a hero (and a villain) with a sense of honor, plus the odd bit of natural philosophy. What more could you possibly ask for in 192 pages of finely written prose?